A Place Found Only Underground
by GlitterWaspOfAwesomeness
Summary: A fun night out turns into a twisted tale of blocked memories and manipulation. A place between worlds where Sarah must choose, if she even has a choice that is. . .
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1.

The pavement was damp outside as the group of young twenty-something ladies gathered outside the brand new and somehow insanely popular nightclub known as the "Underground". The name itself was reason enough to assume it was amazing, but its location was what made the name all the cooler, as it was quite literally, underground. . . There was a door, old and wooden, with a small round window around eye-level. The door was painted a dark brick-red and the window was thick and foggy in an antique way. Two of the girls simply giggled in a semi-hushed way as they neared the door, no doorman was present, no line, no sign even indicating that they had reached their destination. The third member of the small party simply stared at the door while her friends giggled and looked around, partially amused, partially already buzzed, and partially confused. She was nearly completely confused, yet, fascinated, but mostly suspicious that whoever had told her roommate's (one of the two giggling, a ash-blonde with pink streaks) co-worker (other one giggling, hair that was practically white and cut –very- short) about this place, had simply sent them on a wild goose chase to get a good laugh. She looked around, tucking the left side of her dark brown hair behind her ear for a moment, it was strange, surely such a popular club would have people outside waiting to get in.

"Penny, that just looks like an old door attached to an old brick building in the middle of downtown, stuck in a damp ally, that I actually hope is uninhabited." She looked at her friend, green eyes showing that she was a tish annoyed. They were dressed like bimbos, and she had even let them talk her into wearing a stupid 'little black dress' with heels, she had lace tights on at least, but –their-legs were as bare as they day they were born.

"Oh c'mon Sarah the guy told Rae that we'd have to go in to see any action, it's part of what makes it so cool!" Penny tugged on her co-worker's arm, Rae nodded a little and simply grinned widely as they both headed over to the door.  
Sarah let out a defeated sigh, moving over to the door as well, "There isn't even a light on in there, the building looks like it has been empty for decades. . . " Really she was talking to herself now more than anything, mumbling under her breath like she was trying to simply figure this out. The situation itself was fairly out of her element, going to a 'club' wasn't something she normally did. She was a drama major, she did acting on a stage and made costumes and hung out with people that did the same, usually huddled around at someone's apartment watching old movies and joking. Drinking sometimes was involved along with other party-ish things, but generally there were only a few of them, and they were just, sitting around laughing or talking about things in overly-dramatic ways. –This- situation was simply, foreign.

"I thought you –liked- old things Sarah~ you took history and mythology and stuff before and seemed all into it~" Penny stuck out her tongue a little before reaching for the doorknob, a perfectly round knob made of crystal, it was the only thing about the door that didn't look ancient, it looked brand new. It practically glowed, no light bulb or anything, but yet it seemed to glow, even more so when Sarah's roommate turned it and pulled open the door, revealing nothing but a slim hall, only about a yard and a half long, brick walls on both sides, black, possibly just because it was so dark.

The three girls moved forward, door closing gracefully behind them, their footsteps becoming almost creepily loud just because of how silent it was. Then, as they moved forward, there was a light, a faded, small bit of light. They all looked down, there were stairs, seemingly a lot of stairs, but at the bottom of the stairs they could make out a light. "Look –see-! I told you that it was a legit thing!" Rae said triumphantly, though really they weren't down there yet, and even though there was some sort of noise, (that was almost indescribable, as really they couldn't hear it, yet they knew it was there) there was no real proof of life at the bottom. Yet, Sarah shrugged and moved down first, the other two following close behind. . . If they were walking in on something dangerous and possibly illegal, they were all toast already probably, might as well go all the way in. . .

The walls on both sides of the stairs had mirrors on them, like funhouse mirrors, twisting and turning their reflections. The steps were made of stone and the closer they got to the light they appeared to be covered in some sort of glitter, the stones themselves a light grey. As they neared the bottom the noise grew, and music actually became clear along with the sound of people. When they reached the bottom they were all speechless. . . It was in fact a club, filled with people, music made the whole place seem to pulse, like it was alive. Parts of the walls had mirrors on them, mostly though they were brick and glittered, the floor was a fairly normal dance floor except parts of it lit up when one stood on it. There were strobe lights of every color, and a large disco ball in the center of the 'dance floor' which most of the club appeared to be.

"This place is. . . certainly something" Sarah once again was mainly speaking to herself, but the other two happened to be there and thus they responded with nodding, Rae pulling Penny towards what appeared to be the bar, "We should get good and drunk before dancing~" She quickly reaching out and tugged on Sarah's arm as well, but didn't pull and in the end Rae and Penny went without her through the crowd. It wasn't –too- crowded, but there were clusters of people spread throughout the place, and weaving in and out of them were these people in costume, strange costumes, like a masquerade ball. Some of those with masks had trays with drinks on them and other things, making it clear that they worked there. . . The whole place made her head hurt, things were so familiar to her, yet, she had no idea why, it was a memory, there was a memory, she could feel it, yet, it was like she couldn't get to it. Like with a computer, there was a folder, but it was password protected and she had –no- idea what the password was, but she knew that what she needed was in that folder. . . She gripped her bag tighter and made her way further into the place, noting the crystal balls that hung from the ceiling, they were above everyone's heads, and along with the music some of them would glow and fade. . . The music, it was strange, it wasn't anything she had heard anywhere around, but it sounded like party music from the late 80s, with some disco/techno stuck in there. Like stuff she would've grown up listening to when she was in her early teens.

Half and hour later, and the place still gave Sarah this strange feeling, so much so she had actually agreed to get a strong alcoholic fruity-tea flavored beverage, she didn't catch the name, but the way her roommate ordered them indicated that it was probably a very sexual name as she winked at the fellow making the drinks after asking for them. She didn't see his reaction of course though, as he had a strange and twisted masquerade mask on just like the others, the costume was less extreme, and glittery, but just as frilly.

It wasn't long after she begun to drink that the noise went down a little, thus causing people to pay attention to the stage that was on the opposite side of the place from where Sarah happened to be, seated on a bar stool, which was less interesting looking than the bar itself. Above the bar, coming out of the ceiling and the wall that the bar was up against was the shape of a large hand, black like a glove, fingers curled slightly, and from the tips of the fingers dripped black glittery lace like it was being poured out of the fingers, the bar counter was a half-circle and simply pure black but cold at the top for drinks, behind the counter were the bottles of alcohol all lined up beautifully. Really, other than the large hand above them, the bar was far less weird looking than the rest of the place.

Anyway, back to the other side, the stage, where there was now someone standing, a slim man that was around average height for men, 5'10"-ish give or take an inch. The man wasn't dressed like the others that worked there, he wore a very detailed black leather jacket unzipped with a glittery grey t-shirt underneath and black skinny pants tucked into black leather boots that were similarly detailed to the jacket, buckles, though the jacket had spikes on the shoulders, and there were no spikes on the boots. His hair was light blonde with tan speckled feathers spread throughout, sticking out willy-nilly, all the hair feathered at the top and trickling down at the sides of his face, the back longer part pulled into a thin ponytail. His face was edgy and pointed, he made Sarah think of a bird for some reason, most particularly a speckled barn owl, like the one she'd seen around her old home town when she was young. . . Ow!. . .She winced slightly, hand moving to the side of her face, possibly just a brain freeze, but damn it hurt.

The man took the microphone and smirked before speaking, "Hello and welcome I am your host and the King which is what you may all call me~ Simply fear me, love me, do as I say and I shall be your slave~!" He bowed slightly and then the music began again, and along with it he sang, he had an amazing voice, smooth, cool, and hip just like the music, which was just as fun and great to dance to as before, and still, strangely familiar. It was fun music, upbeat, the sort one dances to and has a grand-spanking good time, yet, his voice to her was haunting, as was the music, like something from a dream, something almost from a nightmare. . . Those words he said, his eyes, mismatched, one dark and one light, the place was oddly familiar, but this guy, she knew him! Somehow she had seen him somewhere before! She put her drink down and left her purse by it, not much caring if it was stolen as it only had a little cash and some makeup and the purse itself was cheap. She moved to the dance floor, and was instantly swooped up by the group, a masked worker pulling her further in and moving her around by her hands, others gathering around her and moving with her. She wanted to get closer to stage, closer to the 'King' but here she was, trapped in a crowd of people moving in such a way that she couldn't move, dancing with a strange masked fellow. When she tried to speak the music seemed to become louder, when she tried to move forward everyone else moved back, when she tried to move back everyone else moved forward, in the end she was stuck where she was, a slave to the crowd and trapped, surrounded by unfamiliar faces, some masked, some not.

She looked up, towards the stage, he was still singing, and staring right at her, and she couldn't look away. . . "Who are you?" She whispered under her breath, as she couldn't hear her thoughts or her words anymore so it didn't matter. All he did was smile, widely, almost deviously, mouth filled with teeth that were. . . Pointed? . . . He danced, sang, and looked right at her the whole time, his words were familiar, haunting, his voice like the voice of someone that had been in her head, he was putting her in some sort of trance, and she could feel it happening. It wasn't like he was making her go into it though, her whole self was going along with it somehow, letting it happen, giving in to the movement of the crowd and the words sung by the strange club owner. . . Because in this strange place, somehow, she knew it all, it was all something that she knew, like something out of a strange dream, just, a dream she couldn't remember.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

All these hands moved around her, grabbing her arms, pulling this way and that, even touching her places other than her arms, everywhere really. Just tons of hands, pulling, pushing, making her move this way and that, up, down. . . Wait no, not up and down, that was something else. . . But what? What was it? What was this feeling she had? Like every moment she was remembering things, and yet, she had no idea what she was remembering, but yet these memories were what led her, and were leading her down this mental path she wasn't sure she wanted to go down. Like if she did years of therapy would be flushed right down the toilet.

Faces gradually became blurred, and even those without masks on seemed to have twisted and ugly features, they were all laughing, they were all laughing at her it seemed. Like she looked ridiculous, which she probably did, which was why she never went to these sorts of places. –Ever-. Why was she even there? For a moment she closed her eyes, trying to remember why she had agreed to come to this place, she couldn't remember. She tried to remember anything, anything that happened earlier that day, as they went there in the evening, surely –something- had happened earlier. She couldn't remember, there was nothing there, no knowledge of what happened earlier that day. . . She opened her eyes, they were wider than before, and stared directly at the man that was singing, it was towards the end of the song it seemed, but it didn't matter. She couldn't remember. She couldn't remember anything that happened earlier that day, or the day before, or last week. Nothing. There was nothing there, her mind was filled with this eerie nothingness. There were bits and pieces she knew, she knew she was in college, she knew she was in drama, majoring in it, right? She had a roommate, Penny, and they met. . . Wait, how did she meet Penny? How did she become roommates with Penny? Who the hell is Penny? The man's eyes glimmered and his smile simply grew, like he knew what she was realizing, like he could hear what she was thinking. She couldn't look away, everything, everything was gone, yet not gone, it was there but it made no sense, she couldn't remember why she was there, why she had agreed to come there. . . "Who are you!?" She screamed, nobody heard her, everyone around her simply continued dancing and moving and touching and pulling and pushing. . .

The song the man had been singing ended, and the dj or whatever simply began to play a new song, a song that still sounded like the 'King's' voice, but recorded, or at least, surely it was, as he wasn't singing anymore and had placed the microphone back onto the stand. He moved around it, as if in answer to her question, that nobody heard, not even herself, though she knew she had screamed, she had felt it exit her mouth. He moved towards her, hopping off the stage with an odd grace, the crowd seeming to part for him, just enough for him to weave through it towards her. The hands went away, they stopped touching her, grabbing her, good, as it had hurt, it was incredibly uncomfortable. The only hand was his, a gloved hand, a familiar, gloved hand, reaching out to her for her to take. She reached out and took it, like it was something that would bring her back down, an anchor, an answer, something that would make the world stop turning and blurring around her. Like blurred lines on a page, the blurring of a line between one reality and another. . . It was beginning to make her feel incredibly dizzy and confused. . . And of course that was one of the largest understatements she had ever thought in such a situation. . .Not that this happened often top her. . .

When she took his hand he grasped hers and pulled her towards him, in a smooth fashion that didn't hurt her in any way. His right and opposite arm went around her waist, his hand on her back really becoming the anchor, somehow, the pressure there was some sort of comfort, and even though the world continued to spin, she wasn't so afraid, but she was still confused, "What's happening?" She asked the man quietly, as it didn't even seem to matter how loud she spoke, he could hear her, she just knew it.

"Everything, all at once." He answered, in a vague and yet oddly direct way, "It's been a very long time Sarah, but you cannot forget forever." His voice broke through the loud music, it was smooth, gentle, yet there was a harshness, but it was simply the harshness of reality, like he was just informing her of the truth.

Sarah's eyebrows furrowed together slightly, yet somehow she understood, "But this isn't fair! What if I don't want to remember?" She had a feeling that remembering might be even more frightening than everything else, and everything else was already freaking her out. This person, she knew him and yet she didn't know why, or how, was she one of the things she would have to remember? Why did she forget him in the first place?

He spun her around before pulling her back to him, they weren't exactly dancing to music, but yet, the music was beginning to get blurred like everything else, it was something, smoother, softer, something she didn't understand. It was some sort of declaration of love, some smooth song about love, something she had heard before, but never really listened to. Even now, "You think it is fair that I must remember while you live in ignorance of the past? You think it is fair that those you have forgotten remember, and you go on with this life that is all simply a lie? Nothing is fair Sarah, nothing is ever truly fair, and you must remember, or else you will simply forget, and you don't want that." He leaned closer to her, "You must remember everything, the things you don't want to along with those you do want to remember, which you do Sarah, you do want to remember, that is why you are here."

She raised her left hand to rest on his shoulder, and stared at it for moment, he felt solid, real, it all had felt solid and real at one point, but now she wasn't so sure. She could feel the leather under her fingers, she could feel the tiny metal spikes when she poked them on his jacket, she could feel the heat coming off his body and melding with the heat coming off her own. He felt real, but, she felt shocked by that, like somehow this person wasn't supposed to be real. He wasn't, she knew that, he wasn't –supposed- to be real. Yet here he was, and he felt real, he spoke with a real voice, she could feel his breath when he spoke, and hear his words as they rang in her ears. If anything he was more real than everything else in her life, which at this point wasn't really a surprise, given that everything else felt so, not real, like everything else had been a grand figment of her imagination, and yet this, this right here, this person she didn't even know the name of, he was real.

"Why did I forget you?" She couldn't help but ask, it felt like the real question, like that was somehow the question that she herself needed to answer and suddenly everything else would make sense. This person, he was the reason she had forgotten everything wasn't he? To forget him she had to forget everything else. . . Right? But why? He was, beautiful, graceful, and held her in such a nice way, he looked at her like, like, he truly loved her. Why would she want to forget that?

He stopped moving, just for a moment, as if a tiny bit surprised by the question and yet, not, like he had been expecting it, just perhaps not so soon. "You always were a smart girl Sarah. . ." He spoke like he knew her so well, because he did, perhaps better than most, perhaps better than absolutely everyone, but how? "You wanted me to have no power over you.~" With this he simply melted away, disappeared, and the solidarity that was once before her was gone, replaced by the crowd, which suddenly appeared to be entirely normal, just like any other crowd, of normal people. She managed to move out of it even, and people let her, moving out of the way for her even, not trapping her there. Once out she stood just outside the dance floor for a moment, turning around to look back, first at the crowd, scanning it for him, for the key to what was going on, he was nowhere. She looked at the stage, it looked normal, almost untouched.

She turned away then and thus looked at the bar, the hand above it, it was his hand obviously. . . Gloved, always gloved, but why? Hardly anyone wears gloves like that anymore, certainly not indoors. Oh well, it probably didn't matter, not so much as everything else, which, maybe none of that mattered either, really, perhaps she was just having a panic attack or something, she had those sometimes. Generally it always went the same, like everything wasn't real, wondering what was real, . She'd feel like something was missing, gone, like she wasn't who she was and she couldn't remember who she was. So really it probably was just that, she probably imagined things, let her paranoia get the best of her. She shrugged a little, like she was trying to get rid of it all, get rid of the feeling, the eerie reality that seemed to be staring her down from all directions. She was surrounded by eyes, staring at her, knowing the truth and yet she didn't, it wasn't fair, but that couldn't be real. Certainly not, it was just a panic attack or something akin to that, if she went to a doctor she was sure it could easily be diagnosed, perhaps she was just dehydrated or something. . .

She moved back towards the bar and the two she had come with that were still there flirting with the bartender. Penny noticed her and pouted a little, "You totally ditched us for a while there! Where'd you go?" Not like she actually cared, really she just seemed to be pretending to care, like she actually wanted to hang out with Sarah, which she didn't, they both were perfectly aware of the fact that they had nothing in common, which was why they never spent time together. They shared the rent, nothing else. "I was dancing, um, I think I was only gone for a couple songs though. . . I got tired."

Rae twirled around in her chair with this flair that Sarah was a tiny bit surprised by, as she didn't know this person, but already Rae seemed more like the type she'd hang out with, she was more theatrical. "Are you joking? You've been gone for a whole six drinks~ Which according to my math means you've been gone for nearly two hours Sarah. You naughty little minx~" She winked, clearly implying that Sarah had been off doing something –else- that would make her all sweaty and tired.

Penny laughed a little too loudly at that, "Oh heeeeell no, Sarah doesn't have fun~ she probably was off hiding in the bathroom reading a book she snuck in or something right Sarah~?" The bartender simply smirked and began to clean the area behind the counter, gloved hands. . . What was up with the gloved hands? She hadn't noticed that part of the bartenders costume before, before it just looked to be a very large twisted mask, black poets shirt with a hood covering the guys head and going into the mask, shirt opened slightly at the top, probably to look sexier, tight pants, and boots. The guy kinda looked like a glammed-up pirate, with a mask like some strange mythological creature. . .

Sarah wasn't sure why what her roommate said upset her, but it did, and she crossed her arms in a defensive manner, "I wasn't doing anything like what either of you think actually, I was really just dancing, with the club owner actually~! After he had finished singing. . . Of course." They both rolled their eyes in a 'suuure you did' sort of fashion before turning back to the bartender, why they thought they'd get any action there Sarah wasn't sure, it sure didn't seem like it. The guy was barely responding and frankly didn't seem interested. Yet they were both practically jumping over the counter to get his attention, like they wouldn't be satisfied until one of them at least got his number. . . She rolled her eyes, sat down, and ordered a peach martini, and a tall glass of water. . .


End file.
